A legendary figure in street art Blek Le Rat (Xavier Prou) was born in Paris in 1951. Thought by many to be the father of stencil graffiti as an art form Blek began his unique, complex and intelligent stencil works on the streets of Paris in the 1980's. Hugely influential to the present generation of street artists the importance of Blek's work should not be underestimated as this quote from Banksy suggests: 'Everything I think I've painted something slightly original, I find out that Blek Le Rat has done it as well. Only twenty years earlier...'